28 August 2014

Elmore giant - WIP 2

Hopefully, this will appear in the wilds of the blogosphere on Thursday if I've managed to set this up properly. I'm off in Northumberland enjoying (I hope!) a last spot of family holiday before term begins and am trying to have a "screen-free" few days. No internet and no TV. If you see me post on the G+ or FB groups, or on the forum, you'll know I've cracked! Anyway, content:

I might have mentioned that his fellow is big, but I still can't get over how much brushwork is required to do a single layer of flesh tone. At least, not when I'm trying to do so neatly! This is going to take a while...

Progress since last update:

  • base layer of flesh, including on the pigs (Foundry Flesh 5A)
  • washed flesh (mix of GW wash Ogryn flesh and Foundry Flesh 5A)
  • base layer on shirt (Foundry Moss 29A)
  • base layer on shoulder armour (Foundry Bronze Barrel 105A)
  • base layer on teeth and finger nails (Foundry Boneyard 9A)
  • base layer on eye balls (Foundry Boneyard 9C)

25 August 2014

Adelmo Ladro

Towards the end of September OGRE, the East Anglian group of Oldhammerers, will be meeting chez Erny for a spot of dungeoneering based on WFB 3rd (character generation) and Warhammer Quest. This makes me happy, for I do love a good spot of playing the murder-hobo. I'm going to run a thief character.

I've had this great little Mark Copplestone sculpt that was released by Grenadier Miniatures in times of yore (and is now carried by Battlezone Miniatures among others) for about a year now, having added him to an order on a whim. His time had come!


I'm only showing the bare-metal version because I carefully put together a dark palette of blacks, greys and browns as a suitable ensemble for a thief and I had a hell of a time photographing it. This is the best I could manage with my phone, with a bit if brightness tweaking from photoshop which makes his face look pretty leprous.

Adelmo Ladro, cutpurse and opportunist

Perhaps this image is better? No manipulation on this one.




For under two hours while watching telly, I'm pretty pleased. I had a go at tying together the colours by adding dark grey to the browns, and brown to the black when shading and (in the lead, by my eyes) it works pretty well. I shall have to go back to using the proper camera, though, and maybe even get one of those foldio things or equivalent to use as a light box.

Any suggestions?
Rab


20 August 2014

Elmore giant - WIP 1

What's that, creating a meme picture about a toy monster that riffs off a 1986 film? Yup, that's how I roll...

19 August 2014

The sleeping wizard

CJ - "Daddy, we want to play a knight game, the sort you played when you went to Nottingham with your friends."
Me - "I don't know, the rules are quite complicated; we could play Song of Blades and Heroes?"
CJ - "No, your game. After all, I am six and a half now, and you could help EM because he's only four."
Me - "Okaaay. If you're sure..."
CJ - "Yes I am. Now, what is the story for why we're fighting? What do we have to do to win?"

What could I do in the face of that on the Monday after BOYL? He wanted to play 3rd Ed. and assumed that it would have a narrative element. Of course I was going to encourage him :)

Omzax the Occultist was not a nice man, even before he made whatever deal it was with Dark and Nameless Powers in order to gain his mastery over magic. He was particularly notorious for turning his enemies into mice and then feeding them, one by one, to his pet cat. Zap! Squeak! Miaow! Crunch!

I gave both boys matched forces (six foot knights, five arquebusiers and six peasants), put the wizard (conveniently asleep so he took no part on the battle) in a house in the centre of the board, and let them at it.

BOYL dice being put to good use.

18 August 2014

BOYL 2014 - Bryan's Cabinets of Curiosities

One of the best bits about the atmosphere at BOYL was the incredibly warm welcome the Ansells and their team at Foundry HQ gave us, both individually and en masse. Umbrellas on Friday night (and it really was night, nine pm I think) when we finally finished gaming to get us through the biblical downpour to our cars, spotlights set up so we could game later, remembering which of us were vegetarian and coming to find us at our games to ask what food we'd like at the next meal, a properly fiery veggie chilli (thanks Dianne - yum!), gallons of free tea and coffee.... The list goes on. I've never gamed anywhere as welcoming. Suffice to say, BOYL 2015 is already being planned for a return visit next August :)

Actually, on Friday night I was at a bit of a loose end. The Siege (a game that will be forever capitalised) had paused for the night and antipixi was playing toy cars with the other remaining geeks and gamers, so Bryan Ansell who up until that point had always been a near-mythical name on the 3rd Ed. rulebook and slightly manic looking chaos general gave me a tour of his gaff.

Look on my mullet, ye mighty, and despair!

15 August 2014

11 August 2014

BOYL 2014 - day two (Saturday)

Having been all pleased with myself to get some of the first BOYL photos up and online for the Friday, I've been well and truly gazumped by almost every other attendee... Well, I took photos so I'm going to show you photos, but I'll resist sharing antipixi's most recent "pass me the mind-bleach" internet discovery.

Day two of the siege started with the unwashed and wicked assembling with their siege towers to the fore, many rock lobbers providing withering and continuous fire, and a horde of giants acting as the very angry tip of an enormous onrushing horde...

Setting up for the day; not many figures yet...

8 August 2014

BOYL 2014 - day one (Friday)

Well, I guess it's officially "Day minus one", being the Friday. Whatever - dice have been cast, beautifully painted miniatures long out of production have been shuffled around enormous tables, and plenty of decent chaps in their thirties and forties have chatted beer, their first car, and the intricacies of a hobby that no-one else cares too much about. A huge amount of fun has already been had. Oh, and the Mighty Dark-Winged Avenging Lord of Chaos himself has given me a personal tour of the new Foundry facilities while the almost biblical storm pelted down. More on that later.

First, here is a stream of pictures from the opening stages of the Siege of Avalone, in which the good people of that enlightened city try to get safely behind the walls with enough food to withstand the inevitable blockade.

Look at all those Mighty Fortress pieces!!!!!!